Tech in 2016: What Worked and What Didn't?

After coming out of the fog of semester #1, here I am; somewhat rested and ready to attack Year 2 Semester 2. Here’s the skinny on what tech implementations were victories and which ones were a #epicfail.

Victory #1: The tech-enhanced ‘‘stamp project’’.The use of the iPads to get access to more language, more resources and promote student agency is proving to be quite effective thus far. Foreign Languages sometimes get forgotten on the curriculum and literacy front. It is not surprising when considering import prices on most of these materials.What is it? A project with different tasks, all worth a different weight (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 stamps) ranging in difficulty in what concerns content and tech use. I will explain this project that goes hand in hand with tech in another post.

Victory #2: Keeping active… on social media.Turns out using a medium that students use on a daily basis helps reinforce relationships. As a bonus, I also get a lot more inquiries about assignments than I do on my school email. Score!

#Epicfail: Potential accessibility problems & blogging regularlyThe problem with tech in public schools is that we are not on a 1:1 basis yet. This is an issue mostly for sharing resources and general logistics of managing a certain number of device carts amongst all the teachers. As much as I love my cart and how I use it in class, I can never assume it will be hosted in my room, making it difficult to plan materials and activities ahead of time.

Blogging regularly has proven to be a challenge between taking care of my four preps and students aides during my planning period. However, it has been a really rewarding experience thus far. I’m setting myself the goal to do this as regularly as possible in the next year.